🇵🇷Puerto Rico

Water and Diving Conditions

• Use NWS San Juan beach and marine forecasts, not just a sunny sky. Northwest winter swell, rip currents, current, offshore boat traffic, thunderstorms and strong rain can make a named site inappropriate.
• Dive within your certification, gas plan and no-decompression limits; verify skipper qualifications, SMB use, group size, emergency oxygen, communication and evacuation arrangements. Wall dives are not equivalent to training reefs.
• Avoid solo breath-hold diving and hyperventilation. Depth training needs dedicated supervision, active safety and a documented rescue plan.
• Observe DAN surface intervals: at least 12 hours after a single no-stop scuba dive and at least 18 hours after repetitive or multiday no-stop scuba before flying; longer is safer. Decompression dives need more conservative specialist guidance.
• After sustained rain, DRNA advises avoiding bathing for 24 hours and staying away from storm drains and river mouths. Check site-specific sampling and warnings.

Medical Response

Call 911 for a serious injury or suspected dive emergency, begin trained first aid and emergency oxygen when available, and then contact DAN at +1-919-684-9111 for 24-hour diving medical support. DAN contact is not a replacement for EMS. General hospital resources are concentrated on mainland Puerto Rico. An official September 2026 announcement describes a new Susana Centeno health center on Vieques with emergency services, but this does not verify an on-island recompression chamber, every specialty being continuously staffed or a guaranteed evacuation time. For Culebra, Vieques, outer reefs and remote southwest walls, confirm the operator handoff hospital, oxygen supply, transport/weather contingency and communication method. Do not fly with suspected decompression illness.

Protected Areas

• Culebra Canal Luis Pena: a no-take reserve with no fishing, no collecting organisms and no touching coral. Authorized tourist operators and appropriate anchoring/registration rules apply.
• Fajardo Arrecifes de la Cordillera: separately managed reef and cay habitat; do not infer Culebra-specific permissions, anchoring rights or unrestricted cay landings.
• Rincon Tres Palmas: protected coral reef and extraction restrictions; do not enter during hazardous surf.
• La Parguera: mangroves, seagrass, reefs and cay channels require no-damage boating and locally approved activities. La Parguera bio-bay swimming advice conflicts across published sources; obtain current DRNA confirmation before any water entry.
• Vieques refuge: stay in open authorized beaches and trails. Do not enter closed land or waters in former Navy cleanup areas; do not touch suspicious ordnance. Puerto Mosquito bio bay is separately managed and swimming is prohibited.
• Culebra refuge and Desecheo: sensitive cays require approved landings. Desecheo federal refuge land is closed to visitors because of unexploded ordnance; adjacent-water rules are separately set by DNER.

Wildlife Behavior

Never touch, chase, feed, collect or block marine animals, disturb nest sites or damage coral. Use permitted moorings or lawful safe sand only, protect seagrass, pack out waste and follow official NOAA marine-life viewing guidance.